APN strengthens NZ management team

May 21, 2004

APN strengthens NZ management team ahead of listing SYDNEY,

May 21, 2004 –APN News & Media Limited [ASX:APN] today announced a new management structure for its New Zealand publishing assets.

APN Chief Executive Brendan Hopkins said a new division – APN New Zealand National Publishing –would oversee the publication of:

The New Zealand Herald, the country’s largest circulating daily newspaper, The Aucklander, a total Auckland market coverage free weekly news magazine, and New Zealand Magazines, which publishes the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, the most read women’s magazine in New Zealand, and the New Zealand Listener, the top-rated current affairs magazine in New Zealand.

Mr Ken Steinke becomes Chief Executive of APN New Zealand National Publishing, Mr Rick Neville becomes Deputy Chief Executive and Ms Sarah Sandley joins the Division as publisher of New Zealand Magazines.

APN’s New Zealand regional newspapers will continue to report through the Group’s trans-tasman Regional Publishing Division, led by Chief Executive Martin Simons.

Mr Craig Marsh, Chief Operating Officer of New Zealand regional newspapers (nine dailies and 35 community titles), is relocating to Hawke’s Bay to lead the group from a regional base. Mr Darren Siegertsz, recently appointed as Divisional Finance Manager, New Zealand regional newspapers, will also move to Hawke’s Bay. The Regional Publishing Division will maintain a strong presence in the Auckland market through Presspak NZ, its national selling arm led by Mr David Lewis.

Mr Hopkins said the new management structure would generate operating efficiencies as well as promote the development of new magazine-based products for distribution in APN newspaper titles. The new structure positions the company ahead of listing on New Zealand Exchange Limited [NZX], which it anticipates will occur by mid-June, after which it will be one of the largest listed companies in New Zealand.

The new Division will report as a single entity, alongside APN’s four other trans-Tasman Divisions: Regional Publishing, Radio, Outdoor Advertising and Commercial Printing.

ENDS

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